Cambridge Coincidences Collection

Professor David Spiegelhalter of Cambridge University wants to know about your coincidences!

Very recently I picked by accident the mobile iphone, (the same as mine) of a friend and ran my 4-digit (not same number and not consecutive numbers) password and unlocked the phone. At first I did not realise because I thought it was my mobile, until my friend sitting opposite at a dinner table who had seen me taking her phone, said to me. "How did you know my password?" to which I replied that "I did not". And ofcourse we then both realised that we had the same four-digit password in our identical iphones.

I photograph families as a portrait photographer, just before Christmas a mother and her adult daughter and husband came for a shoot at my studio, the mother, in passing, mentioned that her, now deceased, husband was a photographer but that it was unlikely that I would know him, of course I asked his name, Godfrey Argent.
Surprised I replied, "of course I know him! In fact my father represented him as his agent AND I was photographed by him at the tender age of 16/17 years old!

My parents have the same birthday (different years). As a child I thought this was the case for all mums and dads, i.e. everyone's partner had the same birthday as them. I now have a civil partner with the same birthday as me (different years), but he also has the same first and middle name as me too...

At University I became friends with another girl. It transpired that we had both been travelling in our gap years and that both trips had included Malaysia, amongst other countries. Where? The Perhentian Islands. Which One? Small Island. Which beach? Long Beach. Where did you stay? Moonlight Chalets. When were you there? June. When in June? Turns out I had arrived three days after her and stayed in the same place. Not only that but I had snogged the guy she had been going out with!

My husband was born in Kent and lived in a house near Moat Park. His family used to go
there on occasion and there was a painting.of exotic birds on the wall, which he found he
he very much liked to look as a child. In his thirties, we moved to Bath and went to a house there, where this painting appeared again, which he thought pretty extraordinary.
When my husband was in his sixties, we moved to Guernsey - and, in a local auction
room, this same painting turned up fo sale, with it's Kent and Bath provenance.

My 15 year old son was walking past a telephone box on his way to the local sports centre. The box is half a mile away from our home. The phone rang and being a curious teenager he answered it saying 'hello'. The person on the other end said 'hi Jason (my sons name), is Gina there?' It was a friend of mine. My confused son said 'no not here' and put the phone down. Totally stunned as if in a dream, he hotfooted it home and recounted the incredulous incident! What a coincidence!!

A few years ago a new neighbour moved into the flat next door to me, the sister of the previous owner and I had only met her a couple of times in passing on the stairs. We have now become firm friends and have shared information about ourselves. We were surprised to discover that we have both worked for the same solicitor, Westwood Morris & Co, Waterloo Street, Birmingham, but several years apart, and were able to share information and annecdotes about those who worked for that company.